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Pheasants Forever,
Inc. is a non-profit tax exempt organization incorporated in Minnesota August
5th, 1982. The purpose of the organization is to protect and enhance pheasant
and other wildlife populations throughout North America through public awareness
and education, habitat restoration, development and maintenance, and improvements
in land and water management policies.
Pheasants
don't need much to survive. Give them shelter from the cold winds of winter,
a sufficient food supply and plentiful nesting cover, and North America's most
beautiful and exciting game bird can flourish. Unfortunately, even these basic
requirements have been lacking in recent decades, due largely to dramatically
changing land-use practices. Many fencerows, grasslands and wetlands that once
dotted the rural landscape have gone the way of the family farm, replaced by
millions of acres of tilled soil. With the cover has gone much of the nation's
pheasant population.
The
situation is not without hope. Pheasants Forever, with its 90,000 members nationwide,
is raising money at banquets and turning that money into winter cover, nesting
cover, food plots, wetlands and other habitat ring-necked pheasants need to
survive. The future of pheasants and pheasant hunting has never looked brighter.
Pheasants
Forever is fortified by a unique system of county chapters that provides an
incentive for sportsmen and women to raise money: 100% of net funds raised by
chapters remains at the chapter level for local habitat projects.
Each
Pheasants Forever chapter maintains local control of its habitat funds. Chapter
leaders, with help from resource professionals, establish habitat restoration
programs customized to meet the needs of wildlife in their area. This enables
people who belong to and support Pheasants Forever to see the direct results
of their contributions.
A
typical habitat restoration program includes elements of the following: nesting
cover renovations, winter cover plantings of windbreaks and hedgerows, food
plot establishments, wetland restorations and land acquisitions. In 16 years,
Pheasants Forever has spent more than $70 million on habitat projects alone,
encompassing more than 2 million acres in North America.
The
importance of educating the public about the needs of pheasants and other wildlife
cannot be overstated. Pheasants Forever remains committed to informing members
and non-members alike of this need, and places a special emphasis on the conservation
education of children.
In
addition to various Pheasants Forever publications and other public awareness
programs, the organization developed an innovative youth education program,
Ringnecks. Complete with its own publication, Ringnecks, and an educational
curriculum, the youth program is helping ensure the continuation of our nation's
hunting and outdoor legacy.
Pheasants
Forever supports conservation legislation benefiting the ringneck and other
wildlife in federal and state legislative arenas. Pheasants Forever has been
instrumental in developing and implementing state pheasant habitat improvement
programs. In addition, the organization led the fight to save the Conservation
Reserve Program and strengthen other conservation provisions in the 1996 Fair
Act.
Pheasants
Forever's streamlined method of converting dollars into habitat is the underlying
reason for the rapid growth and success of the organization. Since 1982, Pheasants
Forever has grown to include 90,000 members in more than 550 chapters and has
raised and spent more than $70 million on habitat restoration projects, public
awareness and education programs, and land management policy improvements.
Pheasants
Forever has achieved great success on behalf of the nation's pheasant hunters
and enthusiasts over the past several years, and the prospects for the future
are excellent.
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